How Much Do Indians Pay Their Many Domestic Helpers?

The average Indian middle-class household is home to a whole host of helpers, from maids and drivers to nannies, cooks and guards. Some homes even have people that come in just to do the laundry or grill the chapatis.

Indians can afford an army of domestic workers because salaries are so low. A recent survey by one of India's largest blue-collar job search websites showed just how low.

The Bangalore-based Babajob.com has helped match millions of job seekers with millions of employers in India, most in the informal sector of small businesses and homes. It came up with average salaries offered for different jobs in India's largest cities for India Real Time by looking at vacancies posted by over 350,000 employers on its website in the first quarter of this year.

It found that most house help make less than 10,000 rupees, or $150, a month. In some cities, like Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat, domestic worker positions on average pay less than 6,500 rupees, or $100 each month.

Generally the family driver is best paid while the maid is only paid around half of what the driver makes. The driver also trumps nanny salaries, suggesting people are willing to dish out more to take care of their cars than their kids.

More broadly the data show that -- just like the rest of the world -- jobs dominated by men pay more than those which are usually filled by women. In Mumbai, for example, the average driver’s income was around 13,000 rupees a month while the average maid was paid only 7,000 rupees.

Maids were the worst paid, making as little as 5,000 rupees per month in Kolkata. Next lowest on the salary scale were nannies who make as little as 6,000 rupees a month and then cooks who make as little as 6,500 rupees. After drivers, the best-paying home help job was watchmen who tended to earn monthly salaries of around 9,000 rupees.

Kolkata tended to have the lowest salaries among the major metropolitan areas while Mumbai employers were most generous. Salaries tended to be 20% to 40% higher in Mumbai than in Kolkata.

Babajob.com says the differences are a result of varying labor supply and demand situations in each city.

“There may be fewer people working in a particular job in one city, driving up demand and salaries, while there are too many in another, leading to employers having more choice and thus, more power in negotiation,” said Vir Kashyap, co-founder and chief operating officer of the company. “Mumbai has a significantly higher average cost of living, but salaries are lower for maids due to the significant number of people migrating there to find work."

Corrections and Amplifications

--An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed the quote from Mr. Kashyap to Akshay Chaturvedi, head of outreach and partnerships at Babajob, based on information from the company.